Dead Giveaway (Stillwater Trilogy 2)

Chapter 4

"There you are."

Allie twisted to see Officer Hendricks standing in the doorway of the storage closet, rubbing his giant belly as if he had indigestion. It wouldn't have surprised Allie if he did. He ate more than anyone she'd ever known; he had a grease stain on his collar right now.

"What ya workin' on?" he asked, hooking his thumbs into his belt and leaning against the doorjamb.

That was rather obvious since she was sitting on the floor with the Barker files spread out in front of her. But, contrary to what a police uniform generally signified, Hendricks wasn't known for his deductive reasoning. "I'm searching for leads on the Barker case," she replied.

"Leads?" He scowled. "Why? We already know the devil who did it."

"We do?" She arched a sardonic eyebrow at him.

He reacted by scratching the top of his head, where his thinning blond hair had been reduced to a mere three or four strands. "Shoot, you're the one who took Beth Ann's statement."

"And you can prove what she's saying is true?"

"Just because we can't prove Clay's the one, doesn't mean he ain't," he countered.

She'd heard that line from almost everyone in town. But she wouldn't accept it from a fellow cop. "You can suspect all you want. But it doesn't mean anything until you collect the proper evidence. Without it, we don't have a case."

"The evidence is there somewhere," he said. "We just haven't found the thread that'll unravel it all."

"That's why I'm combing through the files, trying to figure out what's been overlooked."

He took a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at his forehead. It was cold outside--cool in the station, too--but he always sweated profusely. "Last I heard, your daddy didn't want us messin' with the Barker case no more."

She retrieved another stack of files from the box in front of her. "He doesn't want me wasting a lot of time on it, and I'm not." When he left, her father had been too preoccupied to give her any new assignments. And it was a quiet night. She didn't see any problem with pushing forward. She'd promised Madeline Barker some answers, and knew Clay's stepsister would be calling any day to check on her progress. Madeline touched base with her once a week, sometimes more often.

Besides, Allie knew if she wasn't intent on some goal, she'd nod off the way Hendricks usually did. She'd been up since Whitney woke her at two-thirty this afternoon, doing homework with her daughter, taking Whitney to her piano lesson, helping her mother with dinner, and then going through Whitney's bedtime routine. She was exhausted, but felt she owed the taxpayers. She believed pursuing the Barker case was the highest and best use of her skills. Maybe it was nineteen years old, but it was still very present in the minds of so many--Reverend Barker's daughter and extended family, the Montgomerys, Jed Fowler, who'd fixed the tractor at the farm the night it all happened, Reverend Portenski, who'd taken over for Barker at the church, and Reverend Barker's whole congregation. Even the Archers had a stake in it now that their son had married Grace--and they were a very prominent family.

Allie couldn't imagine why her father would make this case such a low priority, especially when he used to be so determined to solve it. He'd often berated his predecessor for bungling the original investigation and swore if it had been handled correctly they would've had the answers ages ago.

So why not handle it correctly now?

"What are you findin' that we don't already know?" Hendricks asked.

"Not much," she said. But she was actually quite intrigued by the report she held in her hand. According to Officer Farlow, the officer whose position she took when he moved to Tennessee, Reverend Barker's nephew had found the pocket Bible Reverend Barker had carried with him everywhere. This was last July, and it had since been released into Madeline's care, but Joe claimed he'd discovered it at a campground on Pickwick Lake and insisted that Grace Montgomery had buried it there.

Records confirmed that Kennedy Archer had rented a spot at the campground during the month in question. Kennedy readily admitted Grace had been there with him, along with his two boys. But both he and Grace denied knowing anything about the Bible. Interestingly enough, Joe had camped with them one night, and although he and Kennedy had once been good friends, they were now pointing fingers at each other. Joe said it was Grace who'd stashed Barker's Bible; Kennedy suggested Joe had buried it there in an attempt to frame Grace.

Allie could see how Kennedy might be tempted to lie in order to protect the woman he loved. But she could also understand why Joe might resort to providing the police with "proof"

against the Montgomerys. He was positive they were responsible for the death of his uncle and wanted to see them punished. He figured he'd waited too long. But, prior to last July, the Bible hadn't been seen since the reverend went missing. If Joe had planted it, where did he get it in the first place?

She made a note to ask Madeline if she could take a look at it.

Hendricks gathered phlegm in his mouth and spat into the wastebasket behind her, jerking her out of her concentration.

"Do you mind?" she asked, disgusted by the crude noise.

"Mind what?" he replied and pointed at her notepad. "What's that you're writing?"

If she ignored him, would he leave? she wondered hopefully. But she wasn't that lucky. Her silence only encouraged him to hunch down and peer over her shoulder.

"If...Joe...found...the...Bible...at...the...campsite...as...he...claims...how...did...he...know...where...t o...look?" He read slowly, trying to decipher her handwriting.

"Where...else...could...he...have...gotten...it? Who...has...it...now?"

"Hendricks, don't you have--" Allie started, but he interrupted her.

"Heck, I can answer those questions for you." He used the door frame to straighten because his knees struggled beneath his weight. "Grace took the Bible off Reverend Barker when Clay killed him, just like Joe says."

"Then why would she keep it for so long before trying to dispose of it? She was an assistant district attorney, for crying out loud, and very successful at her job. Don't you think she'd know better than to hang on to something that would raise so much suspicion if she was caught with it?"

"Maybe she was moving it to another hiding place," he said. "Like she tried moving Reverend Barker's body."

"There's no proof that she was moving anyone's body," Allie reminded him.

"What do you suppose she was doing at the farm in the middle of the night with a flashlight and a shovel?"